How Did I get here?

Two years ago I had the random idea to sell our family home. The idea came from nowhere but it was inspired. It was time for a change, I was approaching 50 and having created a working life based around my family needs, my family needs had changed, the kids were becoming independent and I had time on my hands. I didn’t want to change my work commitments but there was a gap of time that only so much dog walking could fill. Not quite a mid-life crisis but a need to change. I began to think about how I wanted to live and what I wanted to do and then how I could create all of this. There is a phrase ‘pre retirement’ it seemed to tick the box. People who aren’t ready to give up work but are reducing their commitment to work and making time for something new. Time I have realised is a luxury and it was the thing I had the most of. I Wanted to re connect to the passions of my younger years whilst I have the energy to be that passion. These being my former career as a designer, vintage collecting of fashion and textiles, traveling and being involved in the arts. Communicating and engaging in a world outside of school routine, work and family commitments. It’s a liberating thing to let go. When I moved from our family house of 17 years I had edited my life to a few boxes of memories, and the things that I needed. My daughter was about to leave home and my son who at 14 wasn’t ready to give up on his childhood and brought the most with him. We downsized from a Victorian London house into a 1930’s period apartment block, that bit sounds cool. Our apartment though had not been cleaned or changed since 1975 (40 years). And so the story begins.